Gilmour loses out to old rival at US Open badminton finals

KIRSTY GILMOUR suffered a set-back in her last tournament before the World Badminton Championships in Glasgow when she lost out to old rival Michelle Li in the semi-final of the Yonex US Open.

She has now lost all four meetings to the Canadian sixth seed including the 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medal match.

But Gilmour, who has battled her way back into the world top 40 following knee surgery, will be boosted by a home crowd at the Emirates Arena when she goes into action in the TOTAL BWF World Championships 2017 in Glasgow from August 21-27

In Anaheim, the unseeded Scotland star who was attempted to reach her second final in a row, went down 16-21 21-16 21-15 in 70 minutes.

Gilmour had not dropped a game on the way to the last four, showing more good form after reaching last week’s Yonex Canada Open final where she also remained unbeaten until the last match.

Gilmour had an early lead against Li and then pulled away from 13-13 to take the opener on her first game point. But Li responded in the second game, striking at 14-14 with a four-point surge and went on to level the match on her second game point.

In the decider Gilmour recovered from 9-6 down to lead 10-9 before Li won five points in a row.